The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Wednesday assured stakeholders in Edo of the commission’s readiness for the Sept. 21 governorship election.Yakubu told the stakeholders in Benin to cooperate with the commission to ensure credible election.Yakubu noted that the meeting was a tradition convened on the eve of major off-cycle governorship elections and jointly addressed by the INEC chairman and the Inspector-General of Police.

He explained that the purpose was to interact with political parties and candidates, accredited observers, the media and other stakeholders on the preparations for the election. “In particular, the IG will address us on security preparations for the elections, while I will address you on the electoral preparation and together, we will respond to issues and concerns you may wish to raise, ” he said.The chairman said on the part of INEC, active preparations for the election started last year with the release of the timetable and schedule of activities for the election as required by law.He disclosed that 13 statutory activities were listed beginning with the publication of the notice of election and ending with the election day, adding that 11 out of the 13 activities had been concluded.“We have already published the final list of candidates. However, there are two adjustments to the list.“By court order, the commission has replaced the running mate to the candidate of the Labour Party.” Similarly, the National Rescue Movement (NRM), which could not file its nomination on schedule has obtained a court order to compel the commission to include the party on the ballot.“We have complied with the court order. Consequently, 18 political parties are now participating in the 2024 Edo state governorship election,” he added.The chairman disclosed that following the conclusion of the recent Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) in Edo, 184,438 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) were delivered to the state.He said the figure was made up of 119,206 new voters and 65,232 verified applications for transfer into Edo, transfer within the state, cards reprinted or replaced as provided by law.He stated that the commission had already announced that Edo State now has a total of 2,629,025 registered voters.He added that, softcopies of the entire voters register of voters have made available to each political party fielding candidates in the election.“In the next few days, the commission will publish the detailed breakdown of PVCs collected for each of the 4,519 polling units across the state.” Meanwhile, all uncollected PVCs will be mopped up from the 18 local government areas and warehoused in the Central Bank of Nigeria until after the election“INEC had so far accredited 134 groups (124 domestic and 10 international) deploying 1,836 observers and accredited 114 media organisations deploying 721 journalists.“We have also accredited thousands of agents representing candidates and political parties at the 4,730 polling and collation locations.“There are 4,519 polling units, 192 ward collation centres, 18 local government collation centres and the state collation centre.“We are deploying the BVAS machines for voter accreditation and for upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, ” he said.The Chairman, Inter-party Advisory Committee (IPAC) Dr Greg Igbinomwanhia, urged political parties to play by the rules to ensure free, fair and credible election.Chairmen and candidates of different political parties took turns to deliver their goodwill messages and also raised concerns about the the election. (NAN)